Tag Archives: 4th of July

As I mentioned in my last post, Derek and I hit the road for the 4th of July and spent a few days with my family. It was the perfect mix of fun and relaxing, and I wanted to share a little recap of the trip. Instead of my usual recap, and in honor of July 4th, I’ll be captioning with 4 words per picture.

If this post title immediately made you think of the song below, I feel like I accomplished something today.

That will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You’re welcome.

OK, on to the actual point of this post. I want to start a new series of posts that capture the good things going on in my life. Gratitude is probably the most important factor that contributes to happiness. In fact it’s so powerful that many mental health clinicians encourage people to write down 3 good things each day. It’s a practice that stems from positive psychology, and I thought it would be neat to bring BNP.

Without further ado, here a few good things:

Derek is officially a 4th year medical school student!! He finished his last rotation at the end of June, and he has July off to study for his next big exam (USMLE Step 2). I’m so proud of him and all that he accomplished in the past year.

Oh hey there MS4s!

Derek and I hosted a game night with a bunch of friends last week. Games + friends + booze= infinite fun.

It’s not 95-100 degrees everyday anymore. June was HOT. I’m thankful that the weather has cooled off some so that I can actually enjoy being outside again.

I am halfway through my social work licensing process. A lot of people are surprised to learn that after obtaining a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree, it takes at least another 2 years to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in North Carolina. I’m halfway to the 3,000 practice hours and 100 hours of one-on-one supervision that I need to finish up. Woo!

Derek and I are celebrating July 4th with my family in Kentucky. We just got into Lexington last night, and I’m so happy to be here. It’s great to spend time with family and to take some time off from work.

Road trip pic.

Getting kisses from this goofy animal. This is my parents’ dog Scooter. He’s the best.

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already. Obviously I’m a little slow with the 4th of July weekend recap, but better late than never!

On Friday, I slept in a little bit since I didn’t have work. Yay for 3-day weekends! Derek and I spent the morning lounging around and relaxing. The weather was beautiful here, which is rare on the 4th in North Carolina. We decided to take advantage of the weather and go out for lunch at Parker and Otis. Parker and Otis is a great restaurant in downtown Durham. They serve breakfast, sandwiches, and salads, and they try to use fresh, local ingredients as much as possible. Parker and Otis also has a store with gifts, gourmet foods, cheese, wine, and candy. Think of it as a modern, cooler Cracker Barrel store.

We were able to get a table on the porch and enjoyed the gorgeous weather while we ate.

I ordered the 3 salad plate. There are about a dozen different salad choices. I chose fruit salad, curry chicken salad, and pasta salad with veggies. It was delicious!! I didn’t get a picture of it, but Derek got the shrimp BLT. He was a big fan.

After lunch we went to the grocery store to get food for dinner. I shucked corn for the first time in my life. I’m a little ashamed that I’ve never done it before. Derek thoroughly enjoyed making fun of me for it. 🙂

If you didn’t notice in the picture above, Derek was already decked out in his patriotic outfit at this point. A man shucking corn with us said he looked very “independent.”

We spent the afternoon cleaning up the house because some of our friends were coming over for a cookout. We supplied the meat and few snacks, and our friends brought sides. Derek’s friend Scott made guacamole. It was SO good. I swear guacamole is addicting.

I was impressed with the presentation, too. Well done, Scott!

We ate our appetizers and snacks off of the “six-pack” plates seen below. The plates are a wedding gift from Derek’s aunt. I believe they’re from Crate and Barrel.

I think they’re pretty fun. The hefeweizen plate is my favorite.

In addition to guacamole, we had hot dogs, hamburgers, cherries, watermelon, salad, and chips. My friend Caroline also brought a great Mediterranean quinoa salad. It inspired me to make a tex-mex quinoa salad this week. Look for the recipe soon!

After dinner we set off some small fireworks and lit sparklers.

This picture is actually from last year, but we wore the same outfits. Derek added on American flag shorts.

It was a fun, laid back 4th of July for us.

On Saturday we went to our friend Patrick’s pool. It was another sunny day with low humidity. We seriously could not get over how amazing the weather was this weekend.

Derek and I spent the evening watching movies and enjoying our time together.

On Sunday we went to church and got brunch at Carolina Coffee Shop afterwards. It’s our favorite brunch spot in Chapel Hill, and it’s basically next door to our church.

We spent the rest of the day getting Derek packed up and ready for his first rotation. Now that he is officially a 3rd year med student, he will be rotating through the different specialties for 4-8 weeks at a time. His first rotation is OBGYN for 6 weeks in Wilmington, North Carolina. I am, of course, sad about not seeing Derek during the week, but I’m also excited for him. I know he’s going to love finally getting out of the classroom and into the hospital.

It’s a patriotic fun Friday here on Brown is the New Pink. Derek and I are hosting a cookout this evening and possibly going to see fireworks tonight at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill. I’ll be posting a full weekend recap at the beginning of next week, but for now, enjoy a few things that made me smile or laugh this week.

Did you watch the US vs. Belgium game?? I’m bummed that we’re out of the World Cup, but it was a great game. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It makes me want to watch soccer more often. One good thing that came out of the loss was a compilation of photos of things Tim Howard could save. The first picture on there is perfect for today.

Next up is a very bizarre but entertaining video of a man who puts on his pants without using his hands.

The music makes it so much better.

On a more serious note, the following Always commercial addresses how the phrase “like a girl” is used in a derogatory manner. It’s cool and eye-opening to see how differently adults and young girls react to the phrase.

I think it’s a great campaign. When I ran cross country in high school we made shirts with a similar message.

I run #LikeAGirl. (P.S. The shirt is part of my t-shirt blanket, which is the greatest thing ever! Mine was made by Project Repat, and I highly recommend them. The blankets are cut and sewn in the US, and one of the companies that makes the quilts is in Morganton, NC!)

Last, but certainly not least, is a video of fireworks filmed with a drone. So beautiful and cool!

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About Me

Welcome to Brown is the New Pink!
My name is Ali Brown Pinkerton. I live in Indianapolis, IN with my husband Derek. I'm a medical social worker with my Master's of Social Work from UNC - Chapel Hill. Besides my interest in social justice, I love cooking healthy (and sometimes not-so-healthy) foods, running, reading, and traveling.